My love affair with iPad

In fact, I like shopping on it so much that two of my close friends, Richelle and Cecilia, joke that I have found my “true love” in the iPad. He replaces my last boyfriend, the Roku. I truly loved you, Roku, but alas I’ve found someone versatile (and more portable.)

Richelle and Cecilia’s running joke about my relationship with my iPad is both an observation on the rather sad state of my love life and a commentary on the modern-day shopper.

Today, millions of people shop from their mobile devices. This “Cyber Monday,” mobile purchases were up 55 percent year-over-year and totaled nearly 20 percent of all online traffic that day, according to data from IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark.

While smartphones drove more traffic than tablets--about 20 percent of all online traffic vs. 12 percent--tablets accounted for 12 percent of all online sales, double that of smartphones at 6 percent.

For me, the No. 1 advantage of the iPad is its size. It’s not as bulky as a laptop, but bigger than a smartphone. You can curl up in bed with it on a rainy Saturday morning, Earl Grey tea in hand (if you’re so inclined) and order away.

The images on the iPad are stunning, provided the retailer takes the time to ensure their site a) has good images and b) will work on a mobile device. While there was a time when retailers were busy building mobile versions of their full-sized websites, the trend now is to have a responsive site, meaning a site that automatically adjusts to whatever device it is being viewed on, whether it’s a desktop, laptop, tablet or smartphone. The new National Jeweler was built this way.

For anybody interested in doing some mobile-shopping reconnaissance, I think Nine West and Anthropologie both provide an excellent mobile experience.

Now, I know there is an ongoing debate in the jewelry industry about selling online: should retailers, or shouldn’t they? In the end, don’t people want to come in to see/touch/feel jewelry?

Personally, I don’t have a strong opinion either way on this debate. There are too many stores and they are too different to tell Jeweler A in Alabama that they should run their business the same as Jeweler B in New York or Jeweler C in South Dakota.

However, you do have to have a presentable online presence. Your website should